Above the Snowline is out today and here is the cover:



This is what you'll get if you order the book, regardless of the pictures showing on Amazon and everywhere else on the net. This is the final cover, it's a very beautiful production indeed. Order yours now! Order more for your friends, family and pet wolves.

The Castle Omnibus will be published this week and is available from Amazon.

It is a very handsome volume comprising the three Castle books already published: The Year of Our War, No Present Like Time and The Modern World. It’s got a very striking cover and is beautifully produced.



The next book, Above the Snowline, is completed and will be published in January. It has a better cover than the one currently showing on Amazon. More soon...

A number of people have asked me whether I fully worked out the Rhydanne fortune cards - the ones Jant uses in The Modern World. Yes! Continuity and realism aren't the only reasons for figuring out background elements such as the cards. I do it because it helps me imagine the characters, for example Jant and Genya sitting at a table in the Filigree Spider, playing cards at lightning speed, even though the scene may not be used in the books.

Rhydanne fortune cards are a reaction to some of the nonsense I’ve heard about fortune telling. For those who are interested in the full set of 25 cards, more follows:

ICE SUIT

1. glacier
2. firn patch
3. cornice
4. crevasse
5. snowhole shelter

ROCK SUIT

1. mountains
2. cliffs
3. boulders
4. pebbles
5. grit

EAGLE SUIT

1. dead eagle
2. soaring eagle
3. ‘treading’ eagle (i.e. mating eagle)
4. nesting eagle
5. eagle chicks

GOAT SUIT

1. dead goat
2. pastured goat
3. randy goat
4. mother goat
5. kid

ALCOHOL SUIT

1. jug of beer
2. bottle of vodka
3. ‘jack’ of gin (leather bottle of gin)
4. dram of whisky
5. cask of whisky

Rhydanne fortune cards don't have a set meaning: they can symbolise good or bad luck depending on the user's interpretation with respect to their situation. Some Rhydanne prefer particular cards depending on their own experiences. For example Shira Dellin (who will appear in Above the Snowline) likes the Eagle Suit as a symbol of freedom. Most prefer the Alcohol suit, for obvious reasons.

Rhydanne play card games with these too, which Eilean Dara does in the flashbacks in No Present Like Time. The cards then do have a definite order and sometimes this influences the way they interpret the cards as lucky or unlucky when fortune-telling. Within each suit card1 is the least important or most unlucky (deuce) and card5 is the most important or sought-after (ace). The suits themselves are in this order of worst to best: Ice is worst, then rock, eagles, goats and alcohol is of course best. They are also used to play something like ‘stone, paper, scissors’ where rock crushes goat; goat drinks alcohol; ice covers rock; goat walks on ice and so forth.

Above the Snowline, the fourth Castle book, is finished and with the publishers. At last!

What's it about? Here's the blurb:

Awian exiles are building a stronghold in the Darkling mountains, where the Rhydanne hunt. Their clash of interests soon leads to bloodshed and Shira Dellin, a Rhydanne huntress, appeals to the immortal Circle for justice. The Emperor sends Jant, half-Rhydanne, half-Awian, and all-confidence, to mediate. As Jant is drawn into the spiralling violence he is shaken into coming to terms with his own heritage and his feelings for the alien, intoxicating Dellin.

It's available for pre-order from Amazon now, although the wheels of publishing grind exceedingly slowly so it might be some time before you receive one...

I'm now starting another book, also in the Fourlands, but with a fresh voice and a new setting.